Dream Team Seems Sleepy

C.W. Nevius, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published
4:00 am PST, Monday, February 16, 1998

1998-02-16 04:00:00 PDT Nagano, Japan -- So far, the Dream Team is still hitting the snooze button. The star- studded American men's hockey team was supposed to be one of the powerhouses of the Winter Olympics. With big-name NHL players, Team USA was going to challenge for the gold, dazzle everyone with crisp hockey and, incidentally, save the TV ratings for CBS.

Instead, they have flopped flatter than pounded smelt paste, a dinner menu item here. As the mega-game with Canada loomed last night, the Americans are foundering.

"We've done a lot of talking," said plainspoken U.S. coach Ron Wilson, "and there hasn't been a lot of action."

The 4-2 loss to Sweden could be excused. After all, the Swedes are the defending champions and a combination of jet lag and a much- tougher-than-expected adjustment to the larger ice surface were both factors.

But the second game against -- ahem -- Belarus, was an absolute jaw dropper. From the moment the puck was dropped, the Americans were getting beat to the puck, allowing rushes to their net and playing it way too cute at their offensive end.

Following a sloppy pass, and looking at a two-man advantage, Wilson called a timeout and laid into the NHL's finest with a vigor that had lip-readers blushing. Was he frustrated?

"Yeah, I was like 'Network,' " he said. "I was as mad as hell and I wasn't going to take it any more. We play la-de-da, we'll turn it on. Well, sometimes it doesn't happen. We can't wait."

After Wilson's rant, the energy level went up -- "for the next four or five minutes at least," Wilson said -- and the Americans scored twice in a minute and a half.

Frankly, Belarus all but gift- wrapped the goals, twice putting themselves two men down, which is made it look all the more like the sleeping American giant was awakening. Team USA was scoring and Belarus was unraveling.

But another case of the La-de- das soon set in. Belarus scored -- Chris Chelios decked the guy in frustration -- and refused to go away. The Americans got it up to 3-1, but Belarus came back with a slap shot past goalie Mike Richter to make it 3-2, and later had a puck bouncing along the goal line behind Richter that could have tied the score before it was poked out at the last second.

Although it was not Richter's finest evening, Wilson was not upset at him. He was upset, however.

"It's tough for anybody to stop shots when people are allowed to walk down and shoot slap shots from 25 feet," he snapped.

The final result was a 5-2 win for the Americans, but this was a game in desperate need of a look at the big picture. Some conclusions can be drawn at this point, and they are not pleasant.

First, the Americans swaggered into Japan with either much too high an opinion of themselves or far too little respect for the opposition. Again, Sweden is one thing, but did they think they would have to scrap to beat Belarus? Get serious.

"There was almost a stunned expression on our faces that we couldn't do what we wanted," said Wilson. "We are guilty of being a little overconfident right now."

Second, although they were asked about it until they were completely sick of the question, the larger rink is a huge factor.

"It's tough on this big sheet of ice," Chicago Blackhawks forward Tony Amonte said after the first game. "It's tough to even have a collision sometimes, there's so much room out there."

As a matter of fact, if you'd like an opinion, it is a much better game on the larger surface. The number of frozen pucks is down to almost zero and there is more room for skating and passing.

There is no way the NHL would ever go to the larger rink, because it would mean losing some of the most expensive seats in the building, but if you could wave a magic wand and improve the game, this would be the way to do it.

The Americans and the Canadians are also going to have to watch the penalties. The international officials are calling everything, and the NHL players are already barking at them.

Again, they will get no sympathy from Wilson.

"That's what should be called," he said. "One of our guys punched them in the face. That's a foul. I have no problem with that. We've gotten used to this crap in the NHL where nobody calls anything."

So much for a warm, nurturing environment. The NHL agreed to come to the Games and the players are getting the full Olympic treatment, whether they like it or not. Now we will have to see if they can adjust.

Wilson says he is sure that they can. He reminds everyone that the USA and Canada could have lost all three of their first three games and can still win a gold medal.

"These," he says, "are great hockey players. Right now it's a matter of baby steps for our team. We will get better as this tournament goes on."

Somewhere, in a CBS production truck, a prayer for that improvement is being offered.